Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Happiness is a multi-billion dollar industry. People need help. And in this day and age, they need help navigating a veritable maelstrom of self-help options. Mindfulness workshops. Gratitude challenges. These wellness communities have sprung up all over, well intentioned, but not necessarily effective. Inner-strength and calm is a personal quest, made more elusive and difficult than ever before with the frenetic conditions we call modernity. It’s no laughing matter. But reading Eleanor Davis’s How to Be Happy might help you to do just that. Laugh.

When Steve Jobs died of cancer in 2011, he was almost deified. He did, as he said he would, change the world. But Jobs was only human. Creative agency JESS3 and Caleb Melby’s The Zen of Steve Jobs explores the many facets of the man and legend. With Jobs’s design aesthetic at its center, the story achieves a vivid portrait of the complex figure that Jobs had cut.

These Jim Henson Storyteller Witches books that Archaia is putting out are really remarkable. Kyla Vanderklugt’s, The Snow Witch,is a vaster contemplation of life and the human experience than stories ten times its length.

Washing dishes in a restaurant is among the least glamorous of occupations. But not once does Mimi Pond complain or delve into the requisite diatribe on scraping and scrubbing in a perpetual cloud of greasy mist. Time can add a rose colored tint to things, sure, but Pond knew then that she was part of a story worth telling. Thirty years later, here it is, Over Easy.

Every once in a while you’ll read a story that seems to keep converging on itself. In the best possible way. The words are like impressionistic brushstrokes and they come to inform this very rich, and often very beautiful picture. Danica Novgorodoff’s The Undertaking of Lily Chen is one of those books. “The story begins where a young life ends,” the life of Wei Li. Ancient Chinese tradition – and his parents – insist that Wei’s brother, Deshi, must find a young bride to accompany him in eternal sleep. Grieving aside, Deshi’s task is not a simple one. In modern China, demand for corpse brides is high. A journey awaits.

Back in July, the internet exploded about DC’s new Batgirl redesign. With a hip, stylish, and cool costume, we are seeing Barbara Gordon like we have never seen her before. Babs Tarr, the artist behind the revamped comic, originally made much of her fame through her Tumblr. At Boston Comic Con 2014, Tarr was flooded with fans showing their appreciation for the new take on a character they love. It was great seeing so much positive energy surrounding the new Batgirl. We had the chance to ask Tarr a few questions about her thoughts on this experience:

Unless you’re the Zack Morris type, high school can be less than awesome. And Two-Shoes, the protagonist of Kenan Rubenstein’s Last Train to Old Town, is no Zack Morris. Whether he’s being shoved into a locker, chided for reading for fun, or told to sit somewhere else at lunch, Two-Shoes remains pretty much un-phased. This resilient little nerd marches to his own beat and Stone, a modern James Dean type who heads a band of misfits, has taken notice.